The New Girl Who Found A Dead Body by Milda Harris

Blurb: Chloe is excited about spending her senior year of high school in California with her friend Jake's family. Even the usual dread of being the new girl can't bring her down. That is, until she stumbles across the dead body of the most popular girl in school, Lora Kelly. Now she's receiving threatening notes...will she be next? Suddenly, Chloe's dream life, has turned into a nightmare! 

Welcome to the next installment in my roundup of the best writers of the year revisited. Last week we looked at Jamie Sedgwick's fantasy masterpiece The Tinkerers Daughter a magical fantasy story. This week something completely different. We revisit Milda Harris a talented mystery writer.

Review by Dale:

Harris seems to be onto a winning formulae in the murder mystery genre. Delivering another chilling mystery for us to devour in one frantic session. I'd certainly hate to be one of Harris's imaginary characters, as they seem to have a habit of dying in gruesome ways.

Here is an odd fact for you, this is the third story I have reviewed where the main guys name is Jake....

The last book I reviewed by Harris (Adventures in Funeral Crashing) had an outcome that you might have guessed. But this time around you are weaving and bobbing all over the place.

I think one of the best parts of Harris's writing are the characters. So realistic that you easily relate to them and their lives as she lays it out on the page for us.

It is difficult to review a mystery story without dropping spoilers and I don't want to ruin anyones enjoyment of this story.

It's packed with those, "no don't go in there!" moments from good horror movies. A roller coaster ride of white knuckle tension! A great trick for this type of story is putting the hero, or heroine as Chloe is, in mortal peril. In an impossible situation, one with absolutely no hope of getting out of. Then stewing the reader whilst the murderer(s) recounts their horrific details.  So how on earth does Chloe survive? Well I could tell you, but then I'd have to murder you too.


Age 14+
Format: eBook
Available from Smashwords, Amazon etc
Link to Download: Here
Price: $0.99c (at time of review)
Wordcount: 58,000 (appx)
Goodreads

The Tinkerer's Daughter by Jamie Sedgwick

So it's December already and it's nearly a year that Chilli Tween Reads has been reviewing great books for teens and tweens from indie writers. Doesn't time fly when your a reading fun stuff. I can't believe its well over twenty books and authors.

Welcome to the second installment of the year end review of some the best of the best writers I've had on my blog. Todays book is by Young Adult author Jamie Sedgwick. I first reviewed one of Sedgwick's books way back in February. I was instantly impressed by his fantastic and dark story about the darklings. You can revisit the review here or read on for a review of The Tinkerer's Daughter.

Blurb: Breeze is an outcast, a half-breed orphan in a world devastated by 1,000 years of war. She never knew her elven mother. Her father leaves her in the care of a reclusive Tinker, with her true identity safely hidden. Then the war comes and Breeze is exposed. If she has the courage, Breeze has a chance to change the world. If she fails, she'll be hunted to her death as a traitor. 

 Review by Dale:

I cracked this open on my kindle reader this morning and found myself unable to put it down. The story unfolds beautifully with just enough action and drama to quickly draw you into Breeze's world.

A half cast between two race's Breeze lives in an earth like reality. The story is well set in a pre-industrial revolution time period. A time that conjures up the amazing worlds of Jules Verne or H. G. Wells. To spice things up and add a new twist to the nascent steampunk world he adds a touch of elfish type high fantasy.

I think this writers greatest asset is his imagination. Like Lauro Eno from last weeks review the superlative, lavish and full worlds these writers conjure up for us is breathtaking.

Sedgwick has a narrative style that is reminiscent of the old masters like Edgar Rice Burroughs, (he wrote Tarzan). His narration powers ahead like a locomotive on full steam. Smashing through chapter after chapter of suspense and excitement. Covering what would take some writers a trilogy to actualize in about three hundred words.

Sedgwick's knack of ending chapters with suspense compels the reader to swipe the next page. Unable to put this down it can be read in a matter of hours. Yet you easily put the book down feeling replete.

The last story of Sedgwick's I reviewed was so fundamentally different to the story here, the only commonality is the excellent writing. It wont matter if you are a fourteen year old boy or a forty one year old boy (or girl) you will love this! I hope the author is busy writing something new for us to enjoy next year.


Age 10+
Format: eBook
Available from Amazon or Smaswords etc

Link to Download:Smashwords or Amazon
Price: $0.99c (at time of review)
Wordcount: 70,000 (appx)
Author: Jamie Sedgwick